‘Remember Me’ with Robert Pattinson: Review Revue

Can Robert Pattinson transcend his Edward Cullen character in the hugely popular, teen-idol-making “Twilight” series? (To see the new “Twilight” trailer go here.) The British actor is making a bid for a wider film career this weekend with “Remember Me,” a “Love Story”-esque love story between a troubled rich kid (Pattinson) and a working-class girl (Emile de Ravin). Audiences are guaranteed plenty of Pattinson’s trademark brooding, star-crossed melodrama and, according to advance word on the film, a shock ending. One critic has even said that “Remember Me” has all the makings of a campy midnight movie. Not exactly how you want your non-”Twilight” film be viewed if you’re R.Patz. Here are a sampling of critic’s reviews.

“The fact is, “Remember Me” is a well-made movie. I cared about the characters. I felt for them. Liberate them from the plot’s destiny, which is an anvil around their necks, and you might have something.” [Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times]

“…the script offers no tolerable explanation as to why, for instance, Tyler’s business-mogul father (Pierce Brosnan, sharp in a business suit) is such a cold SOB. Why Tyler’s kid sister (nicely serious young Ruby Jerins) is bullied by the mean girls at her school. Why Ally’s policeman dad (the great Chris Cooper, outwitted) behaves so inconsistently. Or why “Remember Me” goes where it goes with such staggeringly misplaced self-seriousness — a movie with all the hyperventilating hysteria of a 1960s teen-tragedy pop song and all the disposability, too. [Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly]

“Pattinson already proved in the Twilight franchise he could brood like a baby Brando or Dean, but here, working with far superior material (by first-time screenwriter Will Fetters), Pattinson gets to sink his teeth into something more than posturing.” [Kimberley Jones, Austin Chronicle]

“Fate sticks its foot out to trip all the characters in all the worst ways in “Remember Me,” a grave romantic drama with grandiose thematic intentions. Framed in a portentous manner with a calamitous ending that will only come as a surprise to those who haven’t been paying attention, the modestly scaled film delivers some moving and affecting moments amid a preponderance of scenes of frequently annoying people behaving badly.” [Todd McCarthy, Variety]

“…I came out of the screening with an ear-to-ear grin I don’t usually get from even great movies. Bless you, R.Patz & Co., because this gloriously steaming pile is officially in the bad-movies-we-love pantheon.” [Keith Uhlich, Time Out]

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